1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that presents information suitable for a current situation of a user.
2. Background Art
An amount of information provided by various media, such as the Internet, is overwhelming due to the development of information communication techniques and the proliferation of commercial uses of the techniques. The user can receive various pieces of information, and the utility of the information for the user is diversified. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to select useful information for the user from a large amount of various pieces of information. Advantages of advertising to an unspecified number of individuals are decreasing for information providers.
Under the circumstances, recently known techniques include a technique of recommending useful information suitable for a profile of the user by extracting and analyzing the profile such as preference information (what kind of information the user is interested in) of the user from a consumer behavior history of the user and a data mining technique for using the information as marketing data in targeting advertising.
Nelson, P.: “Information and Consumer Behavior”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 78, pp. 311-329, (1970) suggests that an object of a consumer behavior of a human being is to satisfy a desire. The existence of basic desires of a human being is known as shown in Steven Reiss: “Who am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities”, Berkley Trade (2002). Desire strengths in consumer behaviors of the user can be expressed by constant strengths of desires that are universal in a long term and momentary strengths of desires (hereinafter, “current desires”).
Meanwhile, it is known that the consumer behaviors of a human being are caused by internal factors and external factors (Nelson, P.: “Information and Consumer Behavior”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 78, pp. 311-329, (1970)). The internal factors are caused by changes in the state of the body, and the internal factors denote physical desires, such as hunger, thirst, sleepiness, and sexual urge, as well as psychological desires, such as social prestige, status, friendship, and power. The external factors are caused by changes in the external environment, and the external factors denote factors affected by external situations, such as an activity area, a time zone/season, and conversation with a friend. The situation of the user caused by the external factors will be called a context in the present specification.
An example of a technique of extracting the internal factors includes a method of expressing the internal state of the user by satisfaction levels of basic desires. Examples of the basic desires include “possession”, “intellectual curiosity”, “peace of mind”, and “social belonging”.
The “possession” is a desire related to acquisition and possession, such as collection of goods and possession of special things. The “intellectual curiosity” is a desire related to curiosity to knowledge, such as interest in unknown things and learning unknown matters. The “peace of mind” is a desire related to calmness of mind, such as healing, release from stress, and prevention of shame. The “social belonging” is a desire related to a sense of belonging to society, such as protection of regions or society and doing right things on a global scale.
The desire of “possession” emerges in actions, such as collection of stamps, recording of series TV programs, a bonus gift of drinking water, and local gourmet. The desire of “intellectual curiosity” emerges in actions, such as watching an educational program, purchasing a book related to trivia, and a historic site tour. The desire of “peace of mind” emerges in actions, such as viewing programs of classic concerts, purchase of commodities related to aromatherapy, and a hot spring trip. The desire of “social belonging” emerges in actions, such as watching sports programs in which countries are represented as in the Olympics and purchase of commodities with small environmental load.
An example of a technique taking the external factors into account includes a method of recommending items corresponding to the context (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2009-129298 A). The items here denote, for example, various pieces of information, such as commodity information, TV program information, book information, and sightseeing spot information, selected by the user according to the interest and preference of the user.
In the method described in JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2009-129298 A, area location information and a time zone are set in advance according to the context of the user. The method determines that the user is in the state of the context when the user is in the area or in the time zone and recommends items suitable for the context. To register an optimal item for the context, a highly frequently selected item in the context is registered as the optimal item based on an item selection history of the user and based on the contexts in the history.